Looking back at history, the evolution of the Central Military Commission and its general departments in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China carried the development of the mainland's army building and the readjustment of the national defense system, from the three general departments and the eight general departments of the People's Revolutionary Military Commission in the early days of the founding of New China, and then back to the three general departments later, this process reflected our army's continuous exploration and adjustment of the organizational structure to meet the needs of the times and military development.
Organizational structure in the early days
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) became the highest military leadership organ of the state and was the organ of unified command of the armed forces.
In 1954, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to establish the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China to replace Chinese the People's Revolutionary Military Commission.
Later, the Training Directorate Department, the Armed Forces Supervision Department, the General Finance Department, and the General Ordnance Department were established one after another, forming the eight headquarters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
However, the system of the eight general departments is also facing some problems in practice, and its huge spread and use of resources are relatively large, and some cadres are not comfortable with the new leadership system.
This sparked a series of objections and controversies, forcing the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China to carefully consider the feasibility of the Eighth General Headquarters. In this regard, some opinions hold that judging from the actual situation of our army, the waste of manpower and financial resources caused by the huge number and irrational organization is very serious.
Against this background, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China finally decided to abolish the eight-general system and restore the three-general system.
This decision was formally implemented in January 1957, the General Ordnance Department was transferred to the General Staff Department, the General Finance Department was transferred to the General Logistics Department, and the Training Directorate Department and the Armed Forces Supervision Department were also streamlined Chinese.
This adjustment is not only a change at the institutional level, but also a profound reflection on the practice of army building and national defense construction; the organizational structure of the Chinese People's Liberation Army has the phenomena of huge organs, too many departments, overlapping organizations, and mechanical division of labor, which shows that the military needs a more flexible and efficient organizational structure to adapt to the rapidly changing war environment.
In 1982, the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China was established, marking a change in the concept of the Central Military Commission, which no longer only included the "Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China" but also included the "State Central Military Commission".
The leadership system was adjusted
In fact, in the early days of the founding of the Central Military Commission, the Central Military Commission was not part of the leading body of the CPC Central Committee, but the military work department of the Central Committee.
Although the Central Military Commission also exists as a military commission, its greatest peculiarity lies in its relative independence.
On the one hand, the chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) is concurrently serving as the chairman of the Central Committee, making it a military work department directly under the party's top leader; on the other hand, all the members of the CMC are high-ranking generals of the armed forces, and they do not hold concurrent positions with other leading members of the Central Party Committee, still less do they have the authority to directly intervene in military affairs.
The particularity of the Central Military Commission is reflected in three aspects:
First of all, the CMC is an entity, not a representative organization.
Second, all the members of the Central Military Commission are high-ranking generals of the armed forces, and there are no other leading members of the party to participate, so as to ensure a high degree of unity within the armed forces.
Third, the Central Military Commission has been entrusted with tremendous functions and powers, not only directly leading the building, training, and combat of the armed forces throughout the country, but also responsible for the party's ideological and organizational work within the armed forces and the work of cadres throughout the army.
This relatively independent and highly centralized leadership system enables the Central Military Commission to command and manage the armed forces more efficiently and ensure that the armed forces maintain a high degree of combat readiness in a complex and ever-changing war environment.
In 1959, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided to limit the number of members of the CMC to ensure the efficiency of decision-making, which showed that the organizational structure of the CMC must adapt to the needs of the current situation and army building, and constantly make reasonable adjustments.
After the establishment of the office system of regular meetings of the Central Military Commission, in 1954 the Central Military Commission decided to establish a meeting system of the Central Military Commission to ensure the collective leadership of decision-making.
It is worth emphasizing that the Central Military Commission, as an entity, emphasizes direct and unified leadership over the armed forces in terms of functions, rather than mere coordination and deliberation, and its nature determines that it is different from ordinary deliberative and coordinating organs, and still less from a single decision-making body, and the rational control of the number of its members is also an inevitable demand arising from its special functions.
When the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China was re-established in September 1954, the composition of the Central Military Commission was 12 people, and there was no vice chairman, and over time, this number was increased to 22 in November 1956, and in September 1959, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to form the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China with a configuration of 21 people, and set up a vice chairman and 13 standing committee members.
Since then, although the number of members of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China has changed, it has remained within a relatively small range, of which the composition of the Central Military Commission adopted by the First Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in August 1977 reached a maximum of 63 members, while the Standing Committee members at the core decision-making level were only 8 members, and the number of non-voting Standing Committee members was 3, so that it has always remained at about 10 people.
Enhancement and strengthening of the leadership of the various headquarters
When examining any institutional change, it is necessary to fully understand its advantages and disadvantages, and seek effective ways to solve new problems.
The above article discussed the overall concept of the construction of the CMC system in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and in terms of specific work, there are still some "rules and regulations", which must mention the situation of the various headquarters under the CMC.
General Staff
The General Staff of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China was renamed the General Staff of the Central Military Commission on October 19, 1949, when the Central People's Government appointed Xu Xiangqian as the Chief of the General Staff of the Central Military Commission and Nie Rongzhen as the Deputy Chief of the General Staff.
However, in November, Nie Rongzhen was appointed acting chief of the general staff, and on November 12, 1951, Su Yu was appointed as the second deputy chief of the general staff.
As of 1952, the organization of the General Staff covered many aspects, such as operations, intelligence, technology, liaison, communications, military training, military affairs, people's armed forces, military transportation, surveying and mapping, publishing, etc.
On October 23, 1952, Huang Kecheng was appointed deputy chief of the General Staff and head of the General Logistics Department, however, in October 1954, the General Staff of the Central Military Commission was further renamed the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, becoming the main military work organ of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China.
The responsibilities of the General Staff include organizing and planning the establishment, equipment, training, military service, mobilization, battlefield preparation, engineering construction, operational command, administrative management, and reserve force building of the armed forces, and it is also responsible for coordinating with various departments and adjusting and resolving common problems in military work.
In order to better lead the modernization and regularization of the armed forces, the General Staff Headquarters has made many adjustments and added new departments, such as the Confidential Bureau, the Foreign Affairs Bureau, and the Management Bureau.
On October 31, 1954, Su Yu was appointed chief of the General Staff, and on November 9, Zhang Zongxun, Li Kenong, Chen Geng, Wang Zhen, Xu Shiyou, Deng Hua, Peng Shaohui, Zhang Aiping, Yang Chengwu, Han Xianchu and other 10 people were appointed deputy chief of the General Staff.
In view of the fact that most of the deputy chiefs of general staff could not take up their posts immediately, Su Yu divided the work among several deputy chiefs of general staff in order to promote various tasks more effectively; among them, Su Yu focused on operations and major matters related to national defense and army building in addition to the overall work; Li Kenong was in charge of intelligence, Zhang Aiping was in charge of military mobilization and administrative management; and Chen Geng was in charge of operations.
In July 1958, the General Staff Department transferred the Training Directorate Department, the Signal Corps Department, and the Anti-Chemical Corps Department, and at the same time abolished the Security Department of the General Staff. Subsequently, in October, Huang Kecheng was appointed Chief of the General Staff. This series of personnel appointments and organizational adjustments reflected the evolution of the organizational structure and leadership level of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army at that time in different historical periods.
General Political Department
The General Political Department of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China was expanded in April 1950 to include the Organization Department, the Propaganda Department, the Security Department, the Culture Department, and the Youth Department.
However, in September 1954, the General Political Department was renamed once and became the General Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Luo Ronghuan was still the director, but Tan Zheng, Fu Zhong, Xiao Hua, and Gan Siqi became deputy directors, and in December 1956, Tan Zheng replaced Luo Ronghuan for the post of director of the General Political Department.
The organizational structure of the General Political Department includes the Organization Department, the Cadres Department, the Propaganda Department, the Security Department, the Culture Department, the Youth Department, the Enemy Work Department, and other institutions, and has a secretary general.
On April 1, 1957, the General Cadre Department was merged into the General Cadre Department, the Ministry of Culture was merged into the Propaganda Department of the Ministry of Culture, and the Youth Department was merged into the Organization Department of the Ministry of Headquarters.
Further readjustment took place in July 1958, when the General Cadre Department, the Military Court, and the Military Procuratorate were transferred to the General Political Department.
General Logistics Department
The General Logistics Department of the Central Military Commission has set up departments such as the Finance Department, the Quartermaster Department, the Ordnance Department, the Health Department, the Transportation Department, the Barracks Management Department, and the Oil Department.
In 1950, He Cheng, Song Yuhe, and Zhang Lingbin became deputy ministers of the General Logistics Department, and on October 1, 1951, the Ordnance Department of the General Logistics Department was subordinate to the artillery establishment of the Central Military Commission and was renamed the Ordnance Department of the Central Military Commission.
On October 23, 1952, Huang Kecheng took over as head of the General Logistics Department, and then, in October 1954, the General Logistics Department of the Central Military Commission was renamed the General Logistics Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and the headquarters were added on the basis of the original second-level departments.
At the end of 1955, the leaders of the General Logistics Department included Huang Kecheng, minister and political commissar, Hong Xuezhi and Zhang Lingbin, vice ministers, and Qiu Huizuo, vice minister and vice political commissar.
On May 10, 1957, Hong Xuezhi took over as the head of the General Logistics Department, and Yu Qiuli became the political commissar of the General Logistics Department.
General Cadre Department
On September 4, 1950, in order to implement the top-down unified management of cadres in the whole army, the Central Military Commission decided to set up a general cadre management department, with Luo Ronghuan as the minister, Lai Chuanzhu as the first vice minister, and Xu Liqing as the second vice minister.
On July 3, 1952, the General Cadre Management Department was renamed the General Cadre Department, which was under the jurisdiction of the Department of Appointment and Removal of Cadres of General Arms, the Department of Appointment and Removal of Special Forces Cadres, the Department of Organization and Statistics, the Department of Military Rank Awards, the Department of Pension and Health Care, and the Office.
In September 1953, the Ministry of Pension and Health Care was abolished, and its work tasks were transferred to the General Logistics Department of the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of Health, the Finance Department of the Central Military Commission, and the Organization and Statistics Department of the General Cadre Department of the Central Military Commission.
By December 1954, the General Cadre Department of the Central Military Commission was renamed the General Cadre Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, with Luo Ronghuan as minister, Song Renqiang and Lai Chuanzhu as first and second vice ministers, and Xu Liqing and Gan Weihan as vice ministers.
After the establishment of the General Cadre Department, all organs at and above the regimental level have set up cadre management departments directly subordinate to the CPC committees and military and political chiefs at the corresponding level. In order to promote the salary system, military rank system, and medal system, the General Cadre Department has formulated a series of rules and regulations, and has institutionalized a series of cadre work in the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
In May 1955, the Reserve Cadre Mobilization Department was added, and in December 1956, Xiao Hua succeeded Luo Ronghuan as minister, and Song Renqiang, Lai Chuanzhu, and Xu Liqing served as deputy ministers.
In April 1957, the Cadre Department of the General Political Department was merged into the General Cadre Department, and the Department of Appointment and Removal of Political Cadres was newly established.
On October 1, 1958, the General Cadre Department was formally disbanded, and under the organization of the General Political Department, the Cadre Department was established to be responsible for the cadre work of the whole army.
summary
The evolution of the organs of the headquarters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army is a process of continuous exploration and adaptation, and every adjustment is aimed at better meeting the needs of army building and national defense; institutional reform should be based on a comprehensive understanding, with the goal of solving practical problems, and ensuring that decision-making is scientific, reasonable, flexible and decisive.
In the complex and ever-changing international strategic environment, the armed forces must respond flexibly and constantly improve their combat readiness level, and this requires us to pay more attention to the rationality and coordination of the system in future reforms, so as to better meet the needs of contemporary army building and combat readiness tasks.
With the continuous development of army building and national defense needs, it is believed that the organizational structure of the mainland armed forces will continue to usher in new adjustments to better meet the challenges of the times.
Bibliography:
1. From the Third Headquarters to the Eighth Headquarters, Liu Zhiqing, Party History Expo, December 1, 2016
2. The Creation of the Military Leadership System of New China and Learning from the Soviet Union, Jiang Huafeng, May 19, 2015